Watford 0-0 Palace report - 'Hornets bitter about Zaha'

Watford fans really detest Wilfried Zaha but he was denied a penalty and wrongly booked for diving by an incompetent referee.

Matt Woosnam

21st Apr 2018

A point against Watford for Crystal Palace was a fair result. The Hornets were by far the better team in the first half, whilst there was a role reversal in the second.

Palace were terrible early on and should certainly have found ourselves behind with Will Hughes missing a glorious chance before Stefano Okaka looped a header against the crossbar as our goal led a charmed life.

Neither team displayed particularly high quality but Zaha was the stand-out player in the second half. He was fouled time and time again by Hornets players who were incapable of handling the talent that he has, which is more than that of their entire team put together.

James Tomkins almost headed in late in the first half but saw the keeper save.

An atrocious display of refereeing began with a decision to deny Zaha a penalty, despite being pushed over in the area. He then allowed Abdoulaye Doucoure to remain on the pitch, despite pushing Zaha and being on a booking already.

To book him for diving in the second half was a travesty when it was a close call as to whether it was a penalty. It certainly wasn't a dive.

Palace hit the bar and the post through Tomkins and Luka Milivojevic with a header and free kick respectively and were unlucky not to win based on the second half but their first half performance was inadequate.

We need to talk about Zaha

The problem Watford fans have with Zaha is that they are bitter about the fact that he was too good for Marco Cassetti in the 2012/13 Championship play-off final.

Their desperate determination to be relevant means they accuse him of diving for the penalty to this day. Kevin Phillips duly dispatched the penalty in extra time and Palace won promotion.

Every time Zaha plays Watford he terrorises them. Their fans never fail to show their lack of class with him.

His quality shines through week after week and yet, despite opposition players taking it in turns to foul him, no referee gives him protection because of this perception that he is a diver. Foul after foul, week after week, but nothing ever gets done.